Luxury Tanzania and Kenya Safari

Welcome to Tanzania! Arrive Arusha and transfer to lodge.

Depart this morning to the Arusha airstrip and board your light aircraft for a flight to Manyara and the gateway to the Tanzanian highlands. You’ll be met on arrival and begin your three hour drive to camp via the Ngorongoro Crater Rim,  with an amazing viewpoint overlooking this 20-mile diameter caldera. Continue on through bucolic Maasai villages where clanking cowbells co-mingle with the whistles of the Maasai herders. If time allows, hike to an escarpment overlooking the Empakaai Crater in time for sunset, or enjoy pre-dinner cocktails around the woodstove (it gets chilly at night at the highest camp in Ngorongoro)!

At dawn, you’ll descend a remote access road to the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, arriving well ahead of the crowds. Wildlife is seemingly everywhere you look – buffalo, impala, elephant, rhino. This is truly a wonder of the world and one of the densest wildlife concentrations anywhere on the continent. Spend a full day on the crater floor or head back to camp for a crater hike or village visit after a picnic lunch.

After a short trip back to Manyara, you’ll enjoy a bush flight over the Ngorongoro Crater en route to Seronera airstrip in the heart of the Serengeti. You’ll immediately head out on a game drive with your expert naturalist guide as you make your way to to the exclusive Namiri Plains camp located in an area of the park that was off-limits for nearly two decades for big cat research. The privacy here is unrivalled, with no other camp within an hour’s drive. This section of the eastern Serengeti is home to a staggering density of predators and when the Great Migration moves into the area, the plains explode into action, with massive herds heading south to calve, followed by the big cats that prey on them. Over the next two days you’ll explore by 4×4 and on foot by day while dining al fresco under the stars each night.

After a final game drive this morning board your light aircraft bound for the wild northern Serengeti and Sayari camp. Set on the untouched plains of the northern Serengeti, this luxury camp is exquisitely located adjacent several crossing points along the Mara River, where sightings of wildebeest plunging off the banks and into the water are frequent and spectacular. Elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard sights are frequent with occasional lucky sightings of rhino. The greater Serengeti is one of the largest intact ecosystems in the world and it’s home to a dazzling array of wildlife. Every day brings new sightings and occasionally the action drama of predator and prey.

Arriving into Rekero one cannot help but utter, “Wow!” Set on the banks of the Talek River, with an epic view downstream, you can literally watch giraffe and all manner of wildlife cross the river while eating your lunch. Wildlife viewing is superb year-round here and the guides are some of the best in Kenya. Crossing points are easily reached from camp so you are in the best possible position to try and catch a river crossing by the fickle wildebeests. Consider adding on a dawn hot air balloon (at additional cost) to get a bird’s eye view over the dramatic game-filled landscapes of the Mara. There’s a reason guests return here again and again.

After a last game drive at sunrise, head for the Ol Kiombo airstrip and fly to Nairobi Wilson. A transfer takes you to Jomo Kenyatta International in time for your departure.